I was asked how much is enough when looking to do a PPC campaign again the other day and as I talked through an answer of more is better so that you get the most data points in which to determine true ROI, blah, blah, blah, it came to me that the answer is quite simple – yet most business owners can’t answer 8 simple questions.
This particular conversation was with a smaller powersports dealer in western Canada. He had been in conversations with his current website provider about PPC to improve his dealership, and was told his budget of $500/month wasn’t sufficient. Well… maybe yes and maybe no.
It truly depends on the dealer having a full understanding of their goals and the value of the customer they are trying to entice. The following points need to be considered when determining IF you even want to do a PPC marketing initiative (you might want to rethink doing it at all based on several factors):
- What is your true goal? Traffic? Sales? Branding? Engagement?
- What are your expectations? Do you expect to sell more today? Tomorrow? Next season?
- What/how many of your products/services do you want to see improvement in? Just new? Just one line of new? A specific brand? Clearance inventory?
- How much to you make on the products/services you are looking to push? $200? $1000? $2500+?
- How many more of that/those products or services do you figure on selling? 2? 10? 50?
- What is the average life-cycle of the customer that buys that product/service? When will they it again? 1 year? 5 years? Rarely ever again?
- How much can you afford (at least initially) to spend on a monthly basis for a minimum amount of time (3-12 months depending on seasonality, buying cycle, etc.)? Keep in mind that a shorter window should allow for a greater amount of spend per month.
- Will I be able to truly analyze how the campaign did after it is done, or at set intervals? Improvements in time on site, pages per visit, overall traffic, bounce rates, leads, sales, etc.
So, is the $500 figure that this dealer told me a reasonable number? Yes, but only if he is selective on what he is trying to sell/improve… and he doesn’t have super high expectations… and he has a high enough margin… and… well you get the picture. Just walk through the above questions yourself!
If you have any questions on how PPC can positively impact your dealership (even though SEO is typically a better bang for your dollar depending on a few things), feel free to contact me to talk about it.